The Pliocene flora of Frankfurt am Main, Germany: taxonomy, palaeoenvironments and biogeographic affinities
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ORIGINAL PAPER
The Pliocene flora of Frankfurt am Main, Germany: taxonomy, palaeoenvironments and biogeographic affinities Zlatko Kvaček 1
&
Vasilis Teodoridis 2
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Thomas Denk 3
Received: 9 October 2018 / Revised: 30 January 2019 / Accepted: 2 May 2019 # The Author(s) 2019
Abstract The Pliocene flora of Frankfurt am Main described by Karl Mädler during the first half of the twentieth century is a key flora for the European Pliocene. In the present study, we revised the leaf fossil taxa described by Mädler and investigated plant material collected after Mädler’s publication. The revised and augmented floral list comprises seven new species and some new combinations of taxa described by Mädler. In total, 16 gymnosperm species in 15 genera and 73 angiosperm species (of which 15 could not be assigned to a genus) in 40 genera are recognised in the leaf record. Main characteristics of the flora are the high diversity of conifers, the diverse assemblage of exclusively deciduous Fagaceae, including six species of oaks, and the high diversity of Rosaceae. These features indicate cool temperate climatic conditions (comparable to Lugano in southern Switzerland). Angiosperm genera that are today confined to North America and/or East Asia (Eucommia, Magnolia and Sassafras) also are deciduous, whereas evergreen taxa are shrubs typical of the understorey (Buxus, Ilex, Pachysandra, Prunus lusitanica type) and Viscum. Eighteen taxa recorded in the Pliocene of Frankfurt am Main are today absent from western Eurasia and eastern North America, and 25 taxa are absent from western North America. This shows (i) a strong biogeographic link of the Pliocene flora of Frankfurt am Main with East Asia, (ii) surprisingly high levels of speciation (Pliocene endemisms) and (iii) that the European flora was more diverse in woody species shortly before the onset of major Pleistocene glaciations than today. Keywords Flora . Relict taxa . Speciation . Biogeography . Pliocene . Europe
Introduction Global cooling after the warm and mild phases of the Miocene (Zachos et al. 2001) led to a modernisation of north temperate Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-019-00391-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Thomas Denk [email protected] Zlatko Kvaček [email protected] 1
Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Faculty of Sciences, Charles University, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague 2, Czech Republic
2
Department of Biology and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Education, Charles University, Magdalény Rettigové 4, 116 39 Prague 1, Czech Republic
3
Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, 10405 Stockholm, Sweden
floras (Mai 1995). The early part of the Pliocene (5.3–3.6 Ma) was characterised by warm conditions (ca. 3 °C higher global surface temperatures) and higher sea levels (10–20 m; Ravelo et al. 2004) and slightly higher CO2 concentrations (Beerling and Royer 2011). During the second part of the Pliocene
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